Method of producing noncurling stiffened woven fabrics and product thereof



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Patented Sept. 24, 1940 PATENT iori-'ICE METHOD F STIFFENED UCT THEBEOFPEODUCING NONCUBLING WOVEN FABRICS AND PROD- Albert Schnholxer, Horn,Swltaerland,

to Baduner t Co., A.G., Horn, Switnerland Application December 6, 1937,Serial No. 1181"'-6 In Switzerland Ml 7, 1937 9 Claims. (Cl. 28-1)'I'his invention relates to noncurling stiilened woven fabrics.

It is known that all fabrics which have been subjected to stiffeningtreatment have a tendency towards curling, that is, rolling upespecially at their edges. The degree of this tendency increases withthe intensity of the application of the stiffening treatment. Thistendency applies particularly to all ne fabrics of tightly twisted l0yarns provided with permanent stiieners, such as the typical stiifened,transparent fabrics, for instance, organdies made from muslin fabrics,and also voile-like fabrics which have been treated by swelling means toproduce transparence and stiii- !5 ness. This tendency toward curling isalso present in heavier fabrics, for instance, double cloths, fabricsmade in imitation of linen, etc., which have been treated to providepermanent stiffness. A further class of fabrics in which this tendencytov/ard curling is present is fabrics simply stiffened by plain sizingwhich may be or may not be fast to washing to some extent. The tendencytowards curling is noticeable in such goods particularly during ironing,and hitherto this characteristic which is exceedingly annoying inworking the goods could not be counteracted by any of the knownfinishing treatments.

Even measures, such as the known measure of calendering both faces ofthe fabric to the same extent, are but temporarily eiective, as theireffect is in most cases destroyed by ordinary ironing, and is alwayswholly eliminated by washing and subsequent drying of the goods, so thatthese measures have been of no help to the user.

` 3I'he extremely disadvantageous curling effect,

particularly, when relatively fine muslin-like fabrics are involved, hasbeen a great drawback to eiforts to promote the more general use of suchhighly reiined textile products.

An object of the present invention is to provide a method for completelyeliminating the said extremely disadvantageous curling eiect of fabrics,as experienced when spreading them out, or, even more, while cuttingthem to shape, particularly under the influence of variations ofatmospheric conditions as regards temperature or moisture content, andespecially while ironing the fabrics.

In the accompanying drawing, Fig. 1 is an enlarged view of a face of anordinary organdie fabric having all the yarns twisted in the samedirection.

Fig. 2 is an enlarged view of a face of a fabric woven according to thepresent invention having the alternate yarns of the warp twistedopposite- Fig. 3 is an enlarged face view of a fabric according to .thepresent invention in which two threads rof similar twist are alternatedwith two threads of opposite twist in both the warp and the weft.

According to the invention, fabrics are pro- 5 duced the warp or weft orboth of vwhich are woven by means of right and left hand twisted yarnsinterspersed therein, for instance, alternating individually or ingroups, and are subjected to 10 the required reiining treatments bymeans of any of the processes for producing transparency or other reningprocesses having a stiifening effect. It is to be understoodthat allmethods hitherto used in the art for producing transparency by 15swelling the fabric and which also produce stiliness either by means ofacids or lyes or other swelling means as well as combinations of suchmethods are applicable for carrying out the invention. 2u

The surprising result of lnumerous tests has shown that the solution oi'the problem of eliminating the curling of fabric, which problem hasexisted for a considerable number of years, is rendered possible byproviding therein a compeng5 sating arrangement of right and left handtwisted yarns. 'Ihis compensating inuence may be provided in either thewarp or weft singly or in both conjointly, as desired. It may beprovided by using threads having left hand and right hand -twist 30 andarranging them alternately or in individual groups of threads of eitherkind of twisting, without the absolute necessity of interweaving exactlythe same number of threads of each kind of twist, as considerablecompensating influence is 35 obtained with 'a percentage of oppositelytwisted yarns of much less than 50%. The percentage of oppositelytwisted yarns required depends on the characteristics of the yarnemployed. Provision may also be made for using such a group of opopositely twisted yarns at the selvedge only but for practical purposesthis measure is of minor importance, due to the fact that the selvedgeis oftentimes cutoff in working the cloth.

`Furthermore, for the manufacture of fancy 4,5

fabrics thev provision of decorative stripes formed of oppositelytwisted yarns so as to provide a fancy eect may suice for obtaining thedesired end, or yarns of unidirectional twist may be used for theindividual fancy stripes together with an 50 arrangement of yarnstwisted oppositely to each other in the ground fabric, or else all ofthe yarns of the ground fabric may be twisted oppositely to thedirection of twist of the yarns of the stripes. As far as the broadprinciple of the in- 5I' vention is concerned, it is immaterial in whatmanner the stiifening of. the fabric, particularly the permanentstiftening thereof, is obtained, or what stiifening or swelling agentsare used or what concentrations, temperatures, durations of treatmentvare applied or whether the fabrics are subjected to any preliminary orafter-treatments by means of which effects, such as, for example.pattern effects, crpe or embossed effects or combinations of such areobtained.

According to the invention, provision is also made for eliminating thetendency towards curling from fabrics which have special effects, due tothe use of special weaving methods, or to the use of vspecial refiningtreatments in connection with the employment of special yarns or tochoice of other kinds of fibers therefor, or to varying of thepreliminary treatment thereof, or due to printing influences and, whichfabrics therefore, have the tendency towards curling, by the use andarrangement of properly twisted interwoven yarns to exert a compensatinginfluence on the otherwise curling fabric. It is to be understood thatthe term, yarn, in the present instance, is f intended to include singleand inter-twisted yarns made from vegetable, animal or artificial fibersas well as from mixed fibers of any combination thereof, the fabriccontaining one or more different kinds of such yarns, as desired.

Broadly the use of cppositely twisted yarns in any feasible relativearrangements is admittedly a matter known per se for overtwisted,so-called crepe yarn fabrics the tension of the twist of which isrelieved. Experience has shown that crepe fabrics made of yarns twistedsimilarly but relieved from tension by shrinkage in the usual mannerhave no tendency towards curling, as the relief of tension stabilizesthe yarns. But if the texture of a fabric made from unidirectlonallytwisted crepe yarns were arbitrarily altered in an unnatural way bystretching and stiffening the fabric, the latter would then have a.tendency to curl to a considerable extent. The invention is,

therefore, not concerned with crepe fabrics which have been treated inthe usual way, or as this may be termed creponised. The invention is,however, concerned with fabrics which are made from overtwisted yarns ifthese fabrics are provided with a plain stiifening effect.

There are further known fabrics in which, for example, the Warp containsan alternate succession of yarns twisted in right hand and left handdirection for the purpose of obtaining a certain stripe elect which isbrought about by the two yarns reflecting the light in different manner.Such goods consist without exception in extremely soft, loose twist, nefabrics, such as shirtings and fabrics which are used for makingunderclothing, and do not curl even without the application ofoppositely twisted yarns, on account of their softness. Y

In the following, anumber of illustrative modes of procedure applicablefor producing lasting or temporary stiiening effects according to theinvention are mentioned by way of example only without limiting theinvention to the same:

l. Modes of procedure for producing permanent stiifenng effects by meansof chemicals for swelling cellulosic or animal flbers, such as thetransparentizing and parchmentizing methods,

i. e. treatment with acid, cuprammonium, zinc chloride, alkali lyes orthe like.

2. Modes of procedures for producing semipermanent stiiening effects,that is, effects standing at least washing, by means of insolubleeffects on fabrics which will have the tendencyk towards curling. Y

Apart from the plain transparent fabrics made from iine cottoxrfabricwith which the invention is concerned most of all, the invention is alsoof great importance for double cloths which are permanently stiiened soas to stand washing, for example, for use for collars or the like, 'andwhich, hitherto, could not be satisfactorily permanently stiffened, ingeneral, due to their annoying tendency towards curling.

According to the invention the crude fabric which is provided with theright and left hand twisted yarns may be subjected to other reningtreatments, i. e. it maybe bleached, dyed, or printed, or the likeeither before, during or after the treatment which provides thestiffness.

As a particular example of the practice of the method according to theinvention, a muslin fabric is woven of fine cotton yarns, for example a80/120 fabric, that is, a fabric having its warp composed of count 80yarns and its weft of count 120 yarns, and having a normal tight twist,for example, 32 turns per inch. The yarns employed comprise asubstantial proportion of both right hand and left hand twisted yarns,the said oppositely twisted yarns being alternated or at least mixed orinterspersed substantially regularly throughout the fabric. Theproportion of one type of yarn to the other type may be 50%. 'I'hefabric may then, if desired, be treated with known bleaching, dyeing,mercerising or printing processes. The thus prepared fabric is thensubjected to an acid treatment of known character for producingstiffness and transparency, for example, treatment with sulfuric acid ofa strength of about 5056 B., for a period of about 20 seconds at atemperature of about C. The fabric is then neutralized, eventuallymercerised and washed. The resulting fabric is a permanentlystiil',ltransparent organdie having no tendency to curlL even aftersubsequent washing and during ironing. Voile fabrics also produced inthis manner are also of importance.

It will be understood that the above specified conditions can be variedaccording to the circumstances and desired result in many respects thatwill occur to persons skilled in the art without departing from thespirit of the invention. In place of the cotton yarns other cellulosicyarns as artificial silk,` and linen, etc., may be employed. Alsonatural silk or wool are suitable. In vplace of the acid stiifening andtransparentizing treatment other treatments such as alternateapplications of caustic and acid may be employed to produce thestiifening. Also treatments with cuprammonium or zinc chloride may besubstituted in known manner for the acid treatment to provide thestiffness. Additionally, when semipermanent or temporary stiffness isdesired, the hereinbefore'm'entioned treatments or applications of sizesmay be substituted for the' abovementioned permanent stiffeningtreatments.

Various changes and modifications may be made in the practice of myinvention without departing from the principle or spirit thereof, byadding customary practice and established knowledge of the art to thepresent disclosure and the scope of the appended claims is not to beregarded as limited except as specified therein.

What I claim is:

1. A thin, stiff, transparent, voile-like fabric substantially free oftendency to curl after hot ironing composed of substantial proportionsof both right hand and left hand twisted yarns, the oppositely twistedyarns being interspersed throughout the fabric with substantialregularity, the yarns being ne and tightly twisted and the fabric beingparchmentized. 1

2. A textile material comprising a thin, parchmentized, voile-like,stiff, open-mesh fabric composed of uniformly interspersed right-handand left-hand twisted yarns, and having substantially no tendency tocurl after hot ironing.

3. A textile material comprising a parchmentized, stiff, transparent,open-mesh, voile fabric, composed of a substantial proportion of bothright-hand and left-hand, tightly twisted, fine, cotton yarns havingabout 32 turns per inch uniformly mixed in the fabric, and the fabrichaving substantially no tendency to curl after hot ironing.

4. The method ofproducing thin, stii, openmesh, transparent fabricshaving substantially no tendency to curl even during and immediatelyafter hot ironing, comprising selecting tightlytwisted, ne yarns ofnatural cellulosic fibers of both left-hand and right-hand twist,weaving a thin, open-mesh fabric of said yarns with the rightandleft-hand twisted yarns substantially evenly distributed throughout, andparchmentizing said fabric to stl'en and transparentize the fabric.

5. A thin.. sti, textile fabric of parchmentized muslin composed of bothleftand right-hand tightly twisted, fine cotton yarns' substantiallyuniformly distributed throughout the fabric, the fabric being relativelytransparent and having an open mesh and being substantially free of tendency to curl even after hot irco 6. A voile-like textile fabric which isopenmeshed, thin, transparent and permanently stiff, composed of fineyarns of both rightand lefthand twist, said oppositely-twisted yarnsbeing substantially uniformly distributed throughout the fabric, saidyarns having a tight twist of about 32 turns per inch and the fabricbeing parchmentized with retention of the tight twist, and said fabrichaving substantially no tendency to curl under the influence of hotironing.

'7. A permanently stiff, thin, transparent, openmesh, musIin-typefabric, composed of fine yarns of both rightand left-hand twist, theyarns of said fabric being of about count 80 and count 120 in the warpand weft respectively, said oppositelytwisted yarns being substantiallyuniformly distributed throughout the fabric, said yarns having a tighttwist of about 32 turns per inch and the fabric being parchmentized withretention of the tight twist, and said fabric having substantially notendency to curl under the influence of hot ironing.

8. A voile-like textile fabric which is openmeshed, thin, transparentand permanently stiff, composed of fine yarns of both rightand lefthandtwist, said oppositely-twisted yarns being substantially uniformlydistributed throughout the warp of the fabric, said yarns having a tighttwist of about 32 turns per inch and the fabric being parchmentized withretention of the tight twist, and said fabric having substantially notendency to curl under the inilence of hot ironing. 1

9. A voile-like textile fabric which is openmeshed, thin, transparentand permanently stiff, composed of fine yarns of both rightand lefthandtwist, said oppositely-twisted yarns being substantially uniformlydistributed throughout the weft of the fabric, said yarns having a tighttwist of about 32 turns per inch and the fabric being parchmentized withretention of the tight twist. and said fabric having substantially notendency to curl under the influence of hot iron.- ing.

ALBERT sonuuonznn.

